JSE faces mostly lower Asian markets on Friday
The JSE faces mixed, but mostly lower, Asian markets on Friday morning, with sentiment under pressure from Covid-19 and US politics.
Covid-19 infections have accelerated in Europe, prompting additional lockdown restrictions, while the future of a second round of stimulus in the US is still uncertain.
In morning trade the Shanghai Composite was down 0.26% and Japan’s Nikkei 0.28%, while the Hang Seng was up 0.7%.
Tencent, which influences the JSE via Naspers, had added 0.63%.
Gold was down 0.23% to $1,904.18/oz while platinum was flat at $862.79/oz. Brent crude was 0.72% weaker at $42.68 a barrel.
The rand was little changed at R16.65/$, having lost 0.6% on Thursday.
“After a week of flat trading, the rand shed some value against the greenback yesterday as broader risk-off sentiment weighed on the currency,” said Peregrine Treasury Solutions executive director Bianca Botes in a note.
There is little on the local economic calendar on Friday, with focus instead on the looming medium-term budget policy statement later in October.
In corporate news, energy group Renergen is due to report its results for the six months to end August later, having said in a recent trading update its headline loss is expected to narrow due to the costs incurred in the prior period’s capital raising. Renergen had listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in 2019.
Source: businesslive.co.za